Day 11: Lijang

Despite the cosy electric blankets neither of us slept too well and were wide awake at 7.30am. No taxis were available until 11.30am and cost £10 to travel 15km so we made a crazy decision to pack up and start walking the low road with the hope of flagging someone down as soon as possible.

The sun had yet to clear the high mountains so it was cold with quite strong winds. While walking we think we saw the rock where a man claimed to witness a tiger leaping the gorge hence the name! We walked for approx 45mins until a blue truck came up behind us. We waved our arms and stuck our thumbs out and to our amazement he pulled over and signalled us to hop in. The driver was extremely careful and slow but rightly so as the road was partly unmade and very narrow with a steep drop to one side and loose rock overhangs on the other.

We made it back to Jane’s Guesthouse some hour or so later and our lovely driver who only spat once would not take any payment! Jane made us breakfast and called Naxi’s for us one last time in the hope of retrieving the ipod but no joy again. We had free use of the internet until a taxi was ready to take us to Lijang at 1pm once he had finished his lunch!

The drive was smooth, the sun was hot and 2hrs later we arrived at the old town in Lijang. We parked up and followed our driver in and out of many cobbled streets until we came across mamas guesthouse which we feared we would never find again alone. Our room is cheap and with western loo and hot shower! We showered and put our clean clothes on and felt human once more. With the sun still shining we wandered the streets of the old town having a nose at all the tiny shops and dodging the many Chinese tourists also visiting. Having had more than our fair share of rice and noodles we cheated and went to the KFC for lunch which really hit the spot!

We continued roaming the streets for a while mainly due to the lack of map, lack of street names and everything looking the same! We finally found our inn and played crib out in the courtyard with a beer and many cats and dogs sunbathing around us. This place has a real mellow atmosphere and I am currently sitting on a swing bench in the courtyard lapping it all up.

We also had some bad luck today where we managed to pick up a virus on the memory stick which deleted all our music and movies that Kris had spent hours preparing to bring with us to ease the day long train/bus journeys… bummer.
After sunset we took a stroll back into the old town for a drink in one of the many bars. This place reminds me of Venice due to the tiny cobbled streets and many bridges crossing many little rivers full of gold fish and streams flowing all over this UNESCO world heritage site.